Well, I don't think the CIA is going soft in this case. It's actually an irony, but the US encourages this kind of nationalism in Japan - because we're tired of footing the bill for their protection. We forbade them to mount a military after the end of World War II, and in exchange for that gave our pledge that we would guard them. Now - sixty years later - we're still doing that at tremendous cost and they're our close allies in Asia - practically the only one we have. So naturally, at this point, letting them run a nationalist agenda suits our purposes. We want them to militarize, and above all we want them to continue funding the refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. Abe's disastrous political career as prime minister was compromising that, and that's why I think the US (probably) brought pressure to bear on him to step down. Although the opposition party, which is much less nationalistic and much less in line with US wishes at this point, still claims they plan to bring the law down - I think the consensus view is that the law itself has a better shot without Abe than with him.
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Date: 2007-09-14 06:08 pm (UTC)It's a fascinating situation.